Re: The fourteen vowels of English?

Even if it's YAEPT, this thread is interesting--

Paul Bennett írta: "I remember reading somewhere that English has 14 vowels
(presumably including diphthongs), but that every dialect collapses at least
two of them together. Well, I decided to measure my own lect, and got some
surprising results. I have at least 17 vowels that I can think of, all of
which can appear between /h/ and /d/...
[snip]

Wow, your dialect seems extremely British-y. I didn't think U.S.-ians ever
talked that way*! Are you a British immigrant or something?

Well, here's my 'lect's vocalic inventory (including diphthongs):

heed /i/
*heared /ir\/ [Is there such a word at all??]
hid /I/
head /E/
haired /Er\/ [Is that even a word??]
had /&/
heard, herd /r\=/
hawed /A/
hard /Ar\/
HUD /V/ [Would anyone be so kind as to look through their dictionary to see
if there are any words [hVd]?]
hoard /@U)r\/
hoed /@U)/
hood /U/
who'd /u/
hide /AI)/
heyed /EI)/
hoyed /OI)/
how'd /&U)/

Wow, I've got eighteen vowels!

A quick question: I've seen /EI)/, e.g., as well as /Ej)/. Is there a
difference?

"...I'm still kinda half working on that onset/peak/coda writing system for
English..."

Cool! I'd be interested in taking a look at it if you ever finish it.

BTW, it'd be interesting if everyone designed a 'lectocentric orthography,
as it were, and wrote a short text in it, to see if everyone could
understand it. Sort of an English-'lect relay! Hmm, maybe I'll work on
that... Stay tuned for news, folks. :))

Trebor
"Oysters are a fine thing, so are strawberries: but mashed together?"

*) I'm guessing you're from or inhabit the U.s., judging by your e-mail
address, altho Ph. D.'s ends in .cc and he lives in Michigan IIRC (are you
an immigrant from the Cocos/Keelings Ilands? Altho, I live in Canada but I'm
using a Free account, which is French. Oh, and a quick question: Why are
some URLs in English even tho their country extension represents a
non-Anglophone country? E.g. www.freemail.hu, Tamás' e-mail provider).

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